Telehealth and Care Technologies (TaCT) Newsletter Issue 1 – July, 2015 Welcome to the first newsletter of the TaCT theme of the National Institute for Health Research, Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Yorkshire and Humber (NIHR CLAHRC YH). The aim of the TaCT theme is to harness new technologies to support health and social care in the community and to improve the quality of life and independence of the growing number of people living with long-term conditions and disability. Our team comprises researchers from universities, the NHS and care organisations across Yorkshire and Humber and together we are carrying out projects researching, developing, evaluating and implementing innovative technologysupported interventions. Our aim with this newsletter is to keep you up to date with progress in the theme and to give a taster of the projects we are involved with.

Our Special Interest Group TaCT Special Interest Group (SIG) coming soon! Invitations will be going out imminently. The event will be focusing on the pros and cons of the use of technology in care homes. For further information please contact [email protected]

New TaCT Theme Manager! We have appointed a new Theme Manager, Dr Jack Parker. Jack is a physio by background, his PhD focussed on stroke patients utilisation of feedback during upper limb rehabilitation in the home. He is a researcher within the theme and will start his additional Theme Manager role in August. He is also seconded from Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust two days per week to work on the Intelligent Shoe projects.

Project Tasters! EnComPaSS Supported by a £250,000 award from the NHS England Nursing Technology Fund, TaCT researchers, St. Luke’s Hospice, Sheffield and a Canadian industry partner are implementing an innovative Enhanced Community Palliative Support Service (EnComPaSS) within Sheffield. Rather than the existing model of 1:1 community-based nursing by senior specialist nurses, junior nurses will be trained and delegated to deliver palliative care plans under online supervision by the specialist palliative care clinicians. ICT will provide online access to up -to-date clinical records to support effective team interaction and decision making, and provide them with immediate access to clinical support from the specialist palliative care clinicians. This implementation is now underway. A baseline evaluation is currently being completed prior to implementation which will commence in September 2015, with full deployment for all community-based care delivered by St. Luke’s Hospice by March 31, 2016. For further information please see: http://clahrc-yh.nihr.ac.uk/our-themes/telehealthand-care-technologies/projects/encompass.

SMART COPD The SMART COPD project is investigating the potential to use digital technology to help people with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) to self-manage their condition. There are two phases to this project: 1) involved interviewing people with COPD, and those they are close to, to understand their views on self-management and how technology could help them self-manage. 2) Phase 1 has informed the development of an app, which is currently undergoing usability testing. The app reflects our focus on physical activity promotion in those living with COPD.

The Fitbit step count is automatically transmitted to the SMART COPD app and fed back to the user to help promote physical activity.

Collaboration for Leadershipin Applied Health Research and Care Yorkshire and Humber (CLAHRC YH) www.clahrc-yh.nihr.ac.uk

The Intelligent Shoe The TaCT theme is continuing an extensive programme of research led by Professor Sue Mawson to develop and evaluate the ‘intelligent shoe’ comprising a multi-sensored insole placed into the user’s shoes to measure and record an individual’s walking speed, distance, steps, symmetry and time spent walking with specifically adapted feedback screens for a mobile phone or tablet to motivate stroke survivors to self-manage their rehabilitation. In order to develop the insole further and explore how the insole could be used in other areas of rehabilitation including Muskuloskeletal conditions, a user participation workshop is soon to be held in the Home Lab in ScHARR and will involve end users, academics, designers and members of the Kinematix team.

Peripheral neuropathy meets tech! Led by Consultant Neurologist Dr Chris McDermott, based at SITraN in Sheffield, we have adopted a usercentred design approach to explore the potential of technology to promote self-management in those living with Peripheral Neuropathy. We engage with people living with the condition, their family and carers, designers and clinicians in the field to explore what forms of self-management interventions are currently available, what forms of self-management interventions are used by therapists in practice and how we can provide patients with selfmanagement skills through the use of technology.

Meet Louise, TaCT PhD Student! Louise’s PhD aims to investigate the “use of telemedicine for remote health care provision by care homes for older people.” Louise hopes that her work will contribute to the treatment and care of older adults. Louise previously worked as a Research Assistant at the University of Sheffield on two Medical Research Council (MRC) funded Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs). She has also engaged in research activity within the Late Effects Team at the Academic Unit of Clinical Oncology, and the Cardiovascular Research Unit. The PhD, funded by the Abbeyfield Trust and based at the University of Sheffield as part of our TaCT Theme and supervised by Professors Gail Mountain and Mark Hawley.

TiM telehealth in Motor Neurone Disease (MND) study

Contact the team

Another SITraN project, TiM, is a randomised controlled mixed methods pilot study of telehealth in MND. We are recruiting patients who are cared for by the Sheffield Motor Neurone Disease Care and Research Clinic at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital. We’ve recruited 29 patients and 26 carers, half of which are using the telehealth system which sends weekly reports about their condition to the Sheffield care centre. We hope to recruit 40 patients by Autumn, 2015. The study is going well with early positive feedback from those using the telehealth system.

Dr Jack Parker, Theme Manager: [email protected]

Study website: http://sitran.dept.shef.ac.uk/clinical-studies/telemedicine/

Visit our webpage: http://clahrc-yh.nihr.ac.uk/ourthemes/telehealth-and-caretechnologies Visit our blog: http://scharr-rat.blogspot.co.uk/

Snapshot of TaCT Publications     

Bentley, C.L., Powell, L.A., Orrell, A., Mountain, G.A. (2014). Addressing design and suitability barriers to Telecare use: Has anything changed? Technology and Disability, 26(4); 221-235. Littlewood C, Malliaras P, Mawson S, May S, Walters SJ: Self-managed loaded exercise versus usual physiotherapy treatment for rotator cuff tendinopathy: a pilot randomised controlled trial. Physiotherapy; 2014 Mar;100(1):54-60 PMID: 23954024 Taylor J, Coates E, Brewster L, Mountain G, Wessels B & Hawley MS (2015) Examining the use of telehealth in community nursing: identifying the factors affecting frontline staff acceptance and telehealth adoption. J Adv Nurs, 71(2), 326-337. Parker J, Mountain G and Mawson S. The Provision of Feedback in Community Stroke Rehabilitation: The Therapists’ Perspective. Phys Med Rehabil Int. 2015; 2(3): 1040. Ariss, S. M. Fitzsimmons, D.A. and Mawson, S. (2015) Moving towards an enhanced community palliative support service (EnComPaSS): protocol for a mixed method study. BMC Palliative Care, 14(17).

© The University of Sheffield 2015, a partner of the Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Yorkshire and Humber (CLAHRC YH) This newsletter is part of independent research by the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Yorkshire and Humber (NIHR CLAHRC YH). The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.